Privacy - is there any ?

There are many reasons to think that your privacy in nonexistent and in the main they relate to our ever growing use of electronic communication devices such as mobile phones, computers and even pagers and satellite TV.

The thing most people don't realise is that when someone calls you a signal is sent to your phone, so guess what? it means they have to know where to send that signal so in essence they have to track your handset all the time and apparently can do so to within 10 meters with general service available now and to within a meter or so with some more advanced gear which they will use if you are under investigation.

I personally make a lot of calls, all day and into the night also texts and emails, as part of my job, given that one would have to assume that I do sleep, anyone monitoring my electronic communications would be able to know where I am 24 hours a day without any problems at all. and thus if I were stupidly accused of being somewhere it would be a simple matter of looking on my phone bill or my email account to see just where I was at any time.

I digress. Many people don't even know that "big brother is watching" or at least aren't provided with that information in a form that allows them to realise that it is happening especially in the workplace. For instance, your email that is "yourname@yourworkplace .com" usually comes through a central server and is duplicated so the employer can see what is in every email and further can be singled out of the email bulk by certain criteria be it Porn, competitors or even personal details in the wording.

But, it doesn't stop there, in fact that is barely the tip of the iceberg; there are simple marketing devices that can allow those people to aim certain types of advertising to you by collecting information about your web browsing habits which also means that they have small software devices inside your PC which is accessible from a third party for exchange of information.

Of course that means that they can also put more information onto your computer in certain situations and also that other third parties can use the access way created to add further data collection devices (cookies) into your system which can be in small bits which are designed to become active and join up to become a program once all the pieces have been put into your system.

That really does make it easy for Governments and their agencies e.g. police, Tax Department, ASIO etc, to see what is in your PC and to even manipulate what can be deleted. Of course that also may allow information to be put on your computer without you knowing, and communications to be made between websites and by email to be made using the ID from your computer without your knowledge.

Of course authorities will claim that they need the power to see detailed information which is privately held within your computer to catch a variety of criminals such as child predators, terrorists, money launderers and perpetrators of identity fraud which is a valid argument and one that has an opposite where people have made claims that they have had data put into their computers by a third party unknown to them, which is very possible because it seems it is so easy to do if you have the knowledge and equipment.

The only real protection from electronic security breaches is to not use any of the electronic gadgets, but is that realistic? While the privacy Act allows you access to the data and information collected about you , you have to know it is being collected and by whom before you can access it and if information and communication can be attributed to you by others you have to know it exists if you want to do anything about it.